A Mickey Mouse Clubhouse 3rd Birthday Party

So, my baby (well, one of them) turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. He has grown up so fast! It seems like just the other day we were bringing him home from the hospital. This year he wanted a mickey mouse clubhouse birthday party, and it was actually the first year that he was REALLY into the whole party thing. The last two years he probably just wondered why all these people came over and gave him presents. But this year was different. The very best part for me was to see the look of amazement in his eyes during this whole process, (which started about 3 months before his actual birthday and he talked about it nonstop until now.) We had planned a day of going to the movies and seeing cars 2 and to eat lunch together, just us, his Gigi and him. Here's some pictures from that day:

                             
                                We ate at Olive Garden (yum!) but he ended up only wanting french fries, which Olive Garden does not have. So, Daddy made a special trip over to Arby's to get the boy some french fries. I think we could've just ate at McDonalds and he would've been happy!

Next, to the movies...

 
I swear he ate popcorn the whole time! He did really good about sitting still and only had to get up twice to potty. The movie was really cute too.

That following Monday night ( his actual birthday) we invited the grandparents over and had cake and ice cream. His party was very low-key and didn't require a lot of planning on my part. I did make a few handmade decorations but nothing fancy. I made two mickey heads out of spray painted Styrofoam balls and stuck them into a bucket from the playroom with sticks and dollar store crinkle paper. (I got that idea from Pinterest also.)

I also made a banner to hang across the china cabinet, it was definitely not perfect but it did the job.

 And, the main event, the cake! He has been talking about having a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse cake for quite some time now so that is exactly what he got! It took me about 3-4 hours to do but it was so worth it. It was yellow cake with chocolate butter cream icing and chocolate chip dough filling. It was VERY good!

Here's the table all set up before his party:

He got a lot of toys and some really cute clothes. We ended up getting him the big versions of Buzz Lightyear and Woody dolls. And the look on his face when he opened them up was absolutely priceless!

He's such an angel! He loved his birthday and now he is already talking about Santa Claus! LOL. 

And finally, here is a walk down memory lane, for me at least. 

July 25, 2008: minutes after he was born

July 2009: His 1st Birthday

July 2010: 2nd Birthday

July 2011: 3rd Birthday

I just LOVE being his mommy!

                                                             

Another Pinterest Inspired Project

So, I have been re-arranging our living room in hopes of giving it an update remodel soon. There is so much that I want to do in here it's crazy. But of course, we have to have money. For right now I will just settle for little projects here and there. Our mantel has always been one of those little projects that just has never felt right.  It just never has that perfect "oh wow" factor that I've always wanted it to have. It started out a natural wood color (I need to find some pics) and here recently we painted it white. At first I did not like it but as time went by it started to grow on me. I had this picture hanging above the mantel for like 4.5 years now:

And with the mantel being white now, it was time for the pic to go.

So, I decided to move the wall clock we had above the tv to where the art picture used to be. And I Love it! 

But it still needed something... I just could not think of what that something was

Until

I was looking on pinterest one night and found this picture:

                                                   littlegreennotebook.blogspot.com

And to tell you the truth I am not crazy about this at all but that molding definitely caught my eye. And what would you know, we have about 20 sticks of base cap in our garage right now waiting to be used. I thought it would be perfect to frame the clock and give it that lil somethin somethin it has been needing. And off my husband went to the garage, what a good man.

And here it is all finished:

I really do love it.

And since then I have changed that candle out to match the other ones, just in case you noticed that :)

Hope you enjoy!

DIY Front Door Wreath

Hey there!

Just wanted to share my DIY Wreath that I made for my front door. I got the idea from a picture I saw on Pinterest (which I am totally obessed with right now) Here is their version of it:

                                                       missloviecreations.blogspot.com


Isn't that too cute? I've been needing something for my door that I can keep up year round and this was the perfect idea. I plan on just changing out the flowers according to the season instead of having several different wreaths during the year. Here's a couple more pictures of ours:

Hope you like it!

My $6.99 light fixture

Our house was built in 1999 so, it definatley has it's little things about it that feels "1999." This was one of those things: the big, flouresent light box over my kitchen island.

Within the past few months I have started to really not like it too much. It works, there's nothing wrong with it, it's just not too hip. So, on one of my many trips to Salvation Army I found this beauty:

It was sooo pretty, but one of the globes were cracked. So, I almost didn't buy it. I stood there forever and tried to decide whether or not to get it. It was priced at $8.99, which was still awesome, but I talked the manager down to $6.99. I know, not much difference but I would rather be out $6.99 than $8.99 if it didn't work, right? I know, I'm cheap. But I got it home and that weekend we put it up to see if it would work, AND....

It does!!!

Oh, I just love it so much! That one globe is still cracked but you can almost not even tell unless you really look at it. One day I'll replace it but for now I'm just enjoying this really sweet deal!

Hello Again!

Ok, I know that it has been a LONG time since I posted anything on this thing but I'm back for the moment to update you with some thoughts I've had during my hiatus. As a mom, I think the number 1 hardest thing about life right now is simply finding balance. I feel like I have a million things to do each day and there is not enough time in the day to do them. And I don't even work! So, I really don't know how full time working moms do it. I am just so very blessed to be able to stay at home with the kids and have my husband provide completely. But at the end of the day I still sometimes have the "mom guilt," like did I spend enough quality time with everyone today? Did Ethan watch too much TV? Did Emily help out too much today? Did Eli eat enough healthy foods? And the list goes on. It really is a task to balance everything out, and I think sometimes in my head, I plan out what my day is going to be like i.e. exercise, breakfast, shower, clean house, spend time with kids, lunch, run errands, laundry, dishes, dinner, read from Bible,spend time w/ hubby and then bedtime. And it is so funny it never ends up like that. And at first, meaning about the time Eli came, I would get so frustrated that I didn't do all of this every. single. day. If I got things done that would mean that I didn't get much time with the kids that day. And If I did get good quality time with the kids I didn't get anything done. Well, I am really working hard on this. If I could just LET GO of all of the feelings of having to be that "super mom" type figure I would really just learn to enjoy life and enjoy my family. So what if there's toys everywhere, my bed is not made, the kitchen is dirty, my laundry room is half painted, and I still have a some baby weight to loose? My kids aren't going to grow up and remember how much dirty laundry we always had or that there was always dirty dishes laying around. They are going to remember that their mom cooked for them all the time, instead of running threw a drive threw every night, and they are going to remember during the summer playing all day and swimming and just really enjoying the time out of school. So, I need to get a grip. I DO NOT have to do everything everyday. And everything DOES NOT have to be perfect all of the time. With that being said, that is why I have not updated my blog in a while. (This is going somewhere, I promise) When I first started it, I felt like I needed to constantly be updating it and getting hits where I could add ads and eventually be making a little (and I do mean little) amount of money off it. But I just don't think that is the plan anymore. The plan now is to update it when I can and not stress about it. To take life one day at a time and enjoy every. single. moment. My babies are way too precious to deserve anything less than ALL of me.